Users Edition Page

Purpose

These screens are used to create, view, update and delete the user accounts granting access to the Project Hirtius application as well as edit some secondary aspects of the user profiles, such as columns preferences (used on the Advanced Search Result Page) or library cards and their renewals (see Library Cards Edition Page and Library Card Renewal Edition Page).

Please also note, that what you will be able to accomplish using the pages described here depends heavily on the level of authority linked with your user profile. Only application administrators will be allowed access to all the features described below for all the accounts defined on the system. Regular users will typically be allowed to edit their own profile only (with the exception of a few fields).

Getting There...

To reach the Edition Page of an existing User:

From the Main Application Menu (or indeed almost any other Project Hirtius page), click on the "Manage Users" icon in the header (). This gets you to the Users List.
Navigate the Users List until you locate the user account you're looking for.
Mark it by clicking on the radio button (first column).
Then select the desired action in the drop-down list at the bottom of the list, and click Submit.

To add a new User record:

From the Main Application Menu, click on the "Manage Users" icon in the header (). This gets you to the Users List.
Press [End] to reach the bottom of the list.
Select Create new user in the drop-down action list.
Click Submit.

Supported actions

The User Edition Page supports the following actions:

Create: the form to fill in and submit in order to create a new User record.
Insert: creating the new User record in the database and password file (follows Create action).
Edit: modifying an existing User record through a form populated based on the current database contents.
Update: storing the modified data in the database, updating the appropriate User record (follows Edit action).
Please note: the last active, admin-capable user account cannot be disabled or demoted. Also, any attempt to rename a user account (i.e. changing his/her 'userid') will trigger a confirmation step. That action can only be carried out by users with Admin privileges.
Upd_and_Ren: storing the modified data in the database, updating the appropriate User record in the case where a change in 'userid' was detected (follows confirmation step in Update action).
Chpass: the form to fill in and submit in order to change the password for the selected User record.
Passupd: changing the password for the selected User record in the password file (follows Chpass action).
Chcols: the form to fill in and submit in order to modify a User's choice of display columns for the Advanced Search Result Page.
Colsupd: saving the User's column choice in the database (follows Chcols action).
View: display the current database contents for the selected User record in read-only mode. No form in this case.
DelCon: first step when requesting the deletion of a user account -- issues a warning and a prompt for confirmation. User accounts are not meant to be deleted (as they identify the author of a modification even after that user has stopped using the application), but rather disabled (checkbox on the account edition page -- see below).
Please note: the last active, admin-capable user account cannot be deleted.
Delete: the actual removal of the selected record from the database and password file, including dependant records (library cards, renewals).

Important: All actions from the above list, that modify in any way the user profile will be recorded: new entries will be added to the Event Log (including a note as to whether the action was taken by the user themselves or by an administrator on their behalf where applicable).

Fields

Here below are the fields that you can expect to find on the User Edition Page. The goal here is not to simply duplicate the database layout information. If this is what interests you, please refer to the Database Layout, the database creation script or the database itself. The purpose is rather to explain what each field is meant for [D], what format it is expected to follow [F] and what are the conditions for its validity (if applicable) [V].

A star (*) after the name of the field denotes a mandatory field (the star is shown in red with the same meaning in the application user interface).

User ID*	D	Unique identifier for the user's profile. Will be used alongside the password to authenticate when opening a new session to the application.
	F	String of 12 characters max. May contain numbers, underscore and hyphen, but should begin with a letter. Case-sensitive.
	V	Should be unique. Should comply with the requirements for Apache's Basic Auth scheme as implemented by their `htpasswd` utility. Charset should be limited to ASCII7.
Full Name*	D	The user's full name.
Full Name*	F	String of 120 characters max. This field is only stored in the database, so UTF-8 is allowed here.
Authorisation Level	D	Defines the user's role and privileges in the application. Select from list. There are only three available choices for now: Reader: the user can access and read all the objects in the database, but won't be able to alter any of them or create new ones. Administration screens won't be accessible to him/her (except for own profile / preferences). Writer: the user can access all objects in the database, alter them and create new ones (with the exception of user accounts), but there will be limitations to what he/she can delete. Likewise, administration screens won't be accessible (except for own profile / preferences). Admin: the user will have full, unrestricted access to the entire application, including all administrative and user management screens. Any regular user account can be granted administration privileges. *Please note:* the last active, admin-capable user account cannot be deleted, demoted or disabled. In 'view' mode, the Auth. level is format-coded.
Authorisation Level	F	Drop-down list.
eMail Address	D	The user's email address. This field is optional and only used by external scripts for now, such the one that warns about library cards expiration. "mailto" links based on this information will also be made available on the Users List.
Editbox rows	D	The preferred height (in text rows) of editboxes, once the length of the contained text grows beyond 6 rows. Default value is defined in the Global Definitions File.
	F	Positive integer.
	V	Positive integer between 5 and 60 (both limits are defined in the Global Definitions File).
Rows per page	D	On those "List" pages that implement a pagination mechanism (e.g. the Slides List), this value controls the number of records displayed on each page. Default value is defined in the Global Definitions File. Adapt based on personal preferences, but take the resources of your client machine and the capabilities of your browser into account (displaying overly long tables may overrun them).
	F	Positive integer.
	V	Positive integer between 10 and 1000 (both limits are defined in the Global Definitions File).
Context length	D	On the Basic and Timeline Search Page, in "Basic Search" results mode, this value controls the amount of contextual information shown in the "mini quote". Default value is defined in the Global Definitions File. This field represents the number of characters included in the quote on either side of the search term, which means that the total quote length will be at most: `(( 2 * context length) + search term length)`.
	F	Positive integer.
	V	Positive integer between 10 and 500 (both limits are defined in the Global Definitions File).
Thousands separator	D	The user's choice of thousands separator character. Default value is defined in the Global Definitions File. Please note that the contents of this field is stored in the database as the decimal value of the selected character in the ASCII table.
	F	ASCII-7 character or empty.
	V	ASCII character between 32 and 126 decimal (i.e. between 'space' and 'tilde'). Leave empty to specify no separator.
Decimal separator	D	The user's choice of decimal separator character. Default value is defined in the Global Definitions File. Please note that the contents of this field is stored in the database as the decimal value of the selected character in the ASCII table.
	F	ASCII-7 character.
	V	ASCII character between 32 and 126 decimal (i.e. between 'space' and 'tilde'). Cannot be left empty.
Default Event type	D	The Event type that will be proposed by default on the new Event creation form. A global default value for this user preference field is defined in the Global Definitions File. Recommended choice would be 'Generic Event', but each user can select their own.
Default Event type	F	Drop-down list.
Hide closed projects	D	Whether or not closed projects will hidden on the Projects List. Default value is "yes". Please note that the choice made here can always be overridden temporarily on the Projects List using the checkbox at the bottom of the list.
Hide closed projects	F	Checkbox.
Password	D	The user's password, used for authentication in combination with the user ID. This field is only shown in *Create* and *Chpass* modes. When shown, there will be 2 such fields. The password should be typed twice (once in each) and both copies should match. A note below the fields will make clear the minimum and maximum password length accepted by the application. When the password is set/reset by an administrator, the minimum value is considered as a recommendation only.
Disabled	D	When checked, the user will be prevented from logging in. This is the preferred way of handling the case of a user leaving the group, as opposed to removing the account altogether. *Please note:* the last active, admin-capable user account cannot be disabled.
Comment	D	Any comment you might have on the user or his/her account. Any text entered here would technically be visible by any authenticated user.
Comment	F	Free text.

In addition to these, when accessing the page in Chcols mode, you will get a checkbox control for each column that you can display or hide on the Advanced Search Result Page. They will be grouped by object type, and be accompanied by the database column name as well as a short description. Some columns will be listed but won't have a matching checkbox: these are mandatory (will always be displayed). Only fully-fledged objects will get a section on this page, even though the Advanced Search Page also supports searching on Books and Articles, because there is no column choice to be made in the latter case.

Controls

In View mode

Edit button: Located at the bottom of the page, just above the footer. Click on this button to edit the current user account (switches the view from a R/O rendering of the contents to an HTML form that allows you to modify that contents and submit it afterward).
Library cards link: Located at the bottom of the page, just above the footer. Click on this link to jump to the Library Cards List for that user.

In Edit mode

Submit button: (Also in "Create", "Chpass" and "Chcols" modes). Commits the locally modified HTML form fields contents to the database that stores Project Hirtius data. Use it to save your latest modifications.
Reset button: (Also in "Create", "Chpass" and "Chcols" modes). Cancels any un-committed change, and returns all HTML form fields to their initial value (i.e. the one they had when the page was last loaded in the browser). Use this button to revert any erroneous edit you might have done (Beware: this only works on local changes that have not been saved to the database yet, i.e. for which you've not clicked on Submit yet).
View button: Located at the bottom of the page, just above the footer. Click on this button to view the current user account (switches from the current HTML form that allows you to modify the object contents and submit it afterward to a R/O rendering of that contents).
Library cards link: Located at the bottom of the page, just above the footer. Click on this link to jump to the Library Cards List for that user.